The Purdah Hospital

Author's note:
This is a sort of sequel to my very
first TOTV tale "Picnic in Purdah"
from March 2006. It is set at the same location and has the same main
characters but having read it is no prerequisite.
October 2015

1. The accident

It's as usual a hot dusty afternoon in
Karachi. Yasmin sits with her eye veil flipped back reading
a fashion magazine she had got
from her friend Leila. Suddenly her peaceful moment is interrupted by
a horrible cry by a female voice:

"Aaargh, argh, ah, ah, ah"

Yasmin drops the magazine and jumps for
her burqa while flipping her eye veil down. It is the voice of her
neighbour Parveen. Although she doesn't
adhere to strict purdah like herself she is a good Muslim and she
would never intentionally raise her voice to a level to be heard
outside the house. Yasmin walks across the yard of the house while
covering with the vintage Indian style
peep-hole burqa which is her standard public veil. On
arriving in the street she sees a woman holding a scarf across
her face as a veil opening the door to Parveen's yard. If she has
reacted to the cry out as well it can only be Asma, Parveen's
neighbour on the other side.

While crossing Parveen's yard it occurs
to Yasmin that she can't remember having
ever before been in public without
wearing a layer of black clothing with a boushiya veil between the
burqa and the modest salwar kameez with pak-chador she wears
outermost in private. And the ball gag to remind her of voice awrah,
which has always been inside her mouth when
in public, hangs untouched in its elastic band around her neck.

Supported by Asma,
Parveen sits on the floor, her face contorted in pain and tears
running down her cheeks. After Yasmin had
dropped her burqa on a chair a sobbing Parveen
says:

"That bloody foot stool! I put it
out on the wooden floor to vacuum the carpet under the coffee table,
but then a fashion feature appeared on the television, and when it
was over I thought about how I would look in the wonderful pink
outfit it showed to absent-mindedly leave
the table. With a flash of pain in my right toes I bumped into the
stool, lost balance and stumbled forward. As
I fell down onto the floor,
my right leg hit the stool hard resulting in some moments of
unbearable pain much stronger than when giving birth. My chest and
shoulders feel okay and my head didn't hit the floor but surges of
pain keep coming from my lower right leg."

Yasmin says "Just relax Parveen.
Now Asma and I are here to take care of you and get someone to treat
you if necessary. First Asma and I will help you to
stand to see if your leg can bear your
weight."

They take an arm each and lift with
Parveen only using her left leg to stand.
Yasmin, while still supporting Parveen,
puts a hand on her right thigh to make Parveen shift her weight
towards the right leg. "Argh" Parveen can't hold back a cry
and her face contorts in pain.

Yasmin says "It's not good. We’d
better get you sitting in one of the easy chairs. Apart from
the right leg you feel no pain?"

"No, only the right leg hurts. I
might have bruised my shoulders," Parveen says, "but just
the little weight before hurt like hell."

Having got
Parveen seated Asma says "I have to say this appears
similar to how, at a wedding, I heard
one of my cousins describe her leg fracture which resulted
in her having to spend several days in hospital. I think we
have to get you to the hospital and have your leg x-rayed."

Parveen says "Yes please, I don't
think I can hold out three hours until Jamal returns from work, but
if you can find a man to call an ambulance perhaps you can ask
him to call Jamal as well and tell him he might have to go to
a hospital instead of coming home."

Asma says "I think the husband of
Wafa, my neighbour on the other side, is
home. If not I'll find another man. Just try to
relax, Yasmin will stay with you I'm sure."

Yasmin nods.
Asma leaves and Yasmin says "Is there anything you want me to
do? I need something to drink. How about you? A
drink of water?"

Parveen nods so
Yasmin fetches two glasses of water.
Parween takes a long sip and then says

"A man, perhaps more
will be coming soon. You are so pious and always veiled.
I only cover my face with a scarf in public but if I'm going
away to stay in a public place I would like to wear my burqa. It's a
standard blue one to be found in the bedroom."

Yasmin easily finds it and helps
Parveen getting it on. She has to take a good hold of Parveen's left
arm to get her standing, all her weight
on her left leg for some moments to get the burqa to fall down and
cover below Parveen's waist. Parveen dumps down in the chair again
and then Yasmin fits her own burqa.

After a minute where neither
of them speak or move Yasmin says "Don't worry about some days
in hospital. For a woman it might very well be like a holiday staying
at a hotel: food and drink
is brought to you. You get fresh clothes and someone cleans
the room. Most likely you won't get a
private ward so there will be other
patients to chat with."

Parveen says "I'll be in good
hands but what about Jamal. He won't die from eating at the bar,
where he watches cricket or football with his friends, or from buying take-away for a few days, but he
really appreciates getting a healthy freshly cooked meal."

Yasmin says "Yes, Sayed loves home
cooking as well. It's very simple: I can just cook
a little extra and
Sayed can take a meal to Jamal
just before we start eating ourselves."

Parveen says "What a wonderful
neighbour I have. We should have met much more frequently, but you
are always with that other strict purdah woman – I'm sorry I can't
remember her name."

"Salima”
Yasmin tells her “Yes, we are very,
very close. At the beginning it was because we wore .
. ."

"Yallah, yallah!" a male
voice interrupts Yasmin with the words to announce a non-mahram man
is entering the house.

Asma is back with Wafa and
a man Yasmin assumes to be her husband. She recalls she has
seen the salwar kameez set before but she has never been acquainted
with Wafa. The husband immediately signals he wants to feel Parveen's
leg and she nods so he folds her burqa
around the leg and then he gently puts his hands around her lower leg
and increases the pressure until, after
just a few seconds, Parveen screams in
pain.

"You need to get to the hospital,"
the husband says and produces his phone.

After switching the phone off he says
"An ambulance will be here in about fifteen minutes. You are
ready to leave it seems Mrs. Jilani; if not the other women will
assist you I'm sure. I'll go out to signal the paramedics and lead
them the right way."

When the husband has left Parveen says
"You must thank your husband a thousand times for helping me
Wafa. He is right. I think I am as ready
as I can be."

Yasmin says "When you get in
contact with Jamal please tell him that
if he can't be with you and comes home about dinner time he can just
knock our door and get some food."

Parveen replies
by saying "How considerate of you dear Yasmin but I have
no idea of what will happen and what he might do, so don't cook as
for a wedding."

Asma adds
"In the unlikely case that you get home tonight
you should not cook or even make
sandwiches. I think you have to be totally at rest for several days
even if your leg is put in a cast. Jamal may knock our door at any
time as well to get proper food or what else your household may be
missing."

Yasmin says "If they keep you at
the hospital please have Jamal call Sayed. I'm sure he will permit me
to come and visit you and find some way to get
me there. And I'll see that Salina comes with me so the two of
us don't have an hour long dialogue."

"I'll of course visit you as
well," Asma says.

"We can go together" are the
first words from Wafa.

They keep silent until more than
fifteen minutes have passed. A worried
Parveen says

"The
ambulance should be here now. Are you sure they have got the right
address Wafa?” before adding “I’m just longing for a doctor to
tell me what has happened."

Wafa answers "Of course my husband
knows where you live. We have lived in
our house longer than you have here if you remember."

Yasmin says "It is of course
fifteen Pakistani minutes Parveen, and they can easily be twice as
long as what a clock shows, especially when your life is not in
immediate danger."

A deep sigh
comes from Parveen's burqa clad head and they
wait in silence for another ten minutes. The silence is finally
broken by a knock on the door to the
yard and a female voice says loudly:

"It is female paramedic Ghazala
Rajpar. The men are not with me, may I come in?"

Wafa, who is
standing closest to the door rushes to
open it.

Ghazala Rajpar says "Good morning
ladies. Mrs. Jilani has had an accident we have been told. It is you
I assume?"

She faces Parveen and walks to her in
the chair at the same time as Parveen nods.

"It is the right leg, isn't it?"
the paramedic says while kneeling and taking her hands to Parveen's
lower right leg. Parveen nods again. Ghazala Rajpar then takes
hold of the leg just like Wafa's husband did and with the same
result: a stab of pain causes
her to scream.

"This is not just a sprain Mrs.
Jilani. My professional assessment is that your
leg is fractured although an x-ray is needed to be certain and
to determine how it has to be treated. You and the lady to my left
being in full purdah I think we’ll
take you to the Jina Memorial Hospital which has a wing
for female patients only and where all staff is female. This
provides a more relaxed stay for better recovery. In case you have to
be examined by a male doctor, or have a
visit by your husband or other males,
there are examination and visiting rooms outside
but very close to the women-only wing."

Parveen says "I mainly
want to know what has happened and start
getting treated as necessary. I'm not as pious as Mrs. Lakhani
but of course I veil to non-mahram men, so not having to think of
this will ease the stay I'm sure."

Ghazala Rajpar says "Then all is
set. I'll just offer you a couple of pills to minimise your pain and
have you relax. Will someone fetch a glass of water please?"

Parveen pushes
her hands outside the burqa and gets the pills in one hand and the
glass in the other. When she shows her hand with the now empty glass
again Ghazala Rajpar says

"I'll now fetch my male colleague
and we'll bring a stretcher, so please
veil as you see right or go to another room."

Asma and Wafa each
hold a corner of their scarf
across their faces and,
along with Yasmin, go
and stand in front of the kitchen door. Within a minute Wafa's
husband opens the door and behind him comes
Ghazala Rajpar and her male colleague holding
each end of a stretcher. Placing it in front of Parveen it is
adjusted to be at level with the seat of the easy chair and then
Parveen is carefully lifted up to stand on her good left leg and
turned to be seated on the stretcher. Then,
even more carefully, her legs are lifted
and she is turned to lie down on the stretcher. A pillow is placed
for her right leg to rest on and then she is secured to the stretcher
with a number of belts. Finally the stretcher is lifted to be easy to
move and slowly rolled out of the house. Asma's husband and the women
follow right behind. As Parveen is lifted into the ambulance Asma's
husband says

"I have got the details of the
hospital Mrs. Jilani. I'll call your husband within a minute to tell
him and then you can expect to talk to him or receive a message from
him at your first idle moment at the hospital. I wish you a speedy
recovery."

The ambulance leaves and they all go
into Parveen's yard. Wafa's husband calls Jamal and the women go just
inside the open door to the house. Wafa looks further inside and says
in a low voice

"Parveen was just about to clean
the floor. When Omar has spoken to Jamal I assume he will lock up the
house using Parveen's keys.
I'll ask if I can borrow them tomorrow to come here and do some
cleaning. Then there is some good news
for her if it can be arranged to visit her. She won't be able to do
thorough cleaning when she is discharged from the hospital anyway I
guess. Would any of you join me?"

"Of course," says Yasmin
"Just knock my door before entering
here."

"Knock on
mine as well," says Asma. "Poor Parveen.
At least she is getting the best care possible and might come
home just as pious and modest as you Yasmin. See you girls.
I have to get back to my own housework as well
as preparing dinner."

"Parveen is a nice neighbour,"
Yasmin says to Wafa after Asma has left. "A woman just showing
eyes hands and feet in public is a good Muslim. I think, but of
course I think that Allah is far happier
the more a woman covers."

Wafa says "I have to say I have
long admired your dedication, along with that
of your very close friend and the
few others in this neighbourhood, who
take purdah so seriously. I have often considered living like that
myself but I come from a liberal family and my mother and some aunts
already think I go too far by pulling my scarf across my
face when in public places. I have told them this is the norm
here, and one of my aunts does the same as me
when she visits."

Yasmin says "Pakistan is a diverse
country with huge differences about how to interpret Islam. I come
from a small rural town and my family would think I would be in
danger in the big city if I covered less. I’d
better get home and on with my
own house chores like Asma. See you tomorrow Wafa."

Yasmin turns towards the door and now,
under her burqa, lifts the
ball gag from around her neck and into
her mouth. Although she has been close to Wafa's husband and the male
paramedic without being gagged the emergency situation is now over
and she feels better passing him in the yard gagged as usual among
non-mahram men.

When Sayed comes home they have dinner
soon after. Yasmin can't wait to tell him all about Parveen's
accident and Sayed listens to her account with great interest. While
Yasmin clears away the dishes after
dinner Sayed calls Jamal to find out he is at tea house near the
hospital waiting for a call from the hospital so their conversation
is short, but he learns that visiting hours for the female wing are
from eleven till noon in the morning and from
four till seven in the evening. Sayed will permit Yasmin to
visit Parveen at the hospital if a solution can be found for
respectable transportation without himself accompanying her.
He will discuss this with Aziz, the husband of Salima and tell him
about Parveen's accident of course, at their usual meeting almost
every evening at a bar showing cricket. Aziz
will in a few words tell Salima when he comes home from the
bar. Yasmin does not know of any women
in the neighbourhood using phones or computers for communication.
Women are considered technologically illiterate but more important it
is unsafe with police, intelligence services and a wide variety of
shady men who may listen to their inciting voices.

When Sayed comes home from the bar he
tells Yasmin that Aziz is going to allow Salima to visit Parveen as
well. Sayed is happy Salima and Yasmin are going together. Being two
it is acceptable to ride a taxi with a non-mahram driver, especially
because Aziz knows one they can trust. It is a little expensive but
there is no other way as none of the men are able to leave work
earlier than normal and a good neighbour has to be supported in a
difficult situation.

2. Cleaning and preparing

The next morning Yasmin works hard from
right after Sayed has left. Before leaving he has,
over the phone, agreed with Aziz
and the husband’s of Asma and Wafa
that Yasmin and Salima visit Parveen this afternoon and Asma and Wafa
tomorrow. After that they have to see how long Parveen is going to be
kept in the hospital. Yasmin works hard because she expects
Salima to visit very soon. With the men not
saying very much she is sure Salima is going to leave home
after having done just the most pressing household
chores to learn about every detail of Parveen's accident.

After forty-five minutes the doorbell
rings. Salima pulls her eye cover down, crosses the yard and opens
the door. A peep-hole burqa very similar to her own is
seen and Salima enters. Inside
the house she stops for some seconds to reach up under her bushiya,
unpin the pak-chador and pull the ball gag
out of her mouth and then repins the pak-chador to let it hide her
face before she removes the burqa and the black layer with the
bushiya. The women are permitted
to see each other's faces but they rarely do. They embrace and
Salima, without even a 'hello', says:

"Yes please, I would like a cup of
tea. Please start telling me everything while preparing the tea."

Yasmin tells her
every detail she can remember. Into their second cup of tea, while
telling Salima telling about how she has promised to clean
Parveen's house together with Asma and Wafa, the doorbell rings.
Opening the door to the street an unknown burqa is
standing in the doorway and a glove
covered hand appears holding a key chain. Wafa has got the
keys to Parveen's house. She steps into the yard and flips the burqa
back the moment Yasmin has closed the door but that doesn't identify
her for sure. She wears a salwar kameez set but unlike yesterday,
in addition to a pair of gloves, she
wears socks and a short pak-chador head covering with eye veil. For a
moment, until she
speaks, Yasmin is unsure if it really is Wafa.

"Good morning Yasmin. Are you
ready to help clean Parveen’s house?"

Yasmin says "Almost, and perhaps
Salima is going to help as well."

Yasmin gestures towards the front door
of the house where Salima stands in the doorway. They go to her and
Yasmin continues

"Salima meet Wafa.
Wafa say hello to my closest friend Salima."

Salima and Wafa embrace and Salima says
to Wafa

"It's assuring to know Yasmin has
so good neighbours if she has an accident, Heaven forbid.
She has just told me you, Asma and Yasmin have promised each other to
clean Parveen's house. I can see you are here to fetch her. Until she
told me I would have suggested to her that we went shopping for
presents for Parveen when visiting her; sweets and fruit for example
but of course Yasmin has to keep her
promise and as I would rather have her in on what presents we buy I
suggest, Yasmin, that we go shopping after cleaning which means I'll
help you with the cleaning if I may."

Yasmin and Salima both nod several
times and Salima pats Wafa on her back before
Salima continues

"I might not be of that much of a
help though because I didn't know of this in advance so Aziz, my
husband, has not given me permission to remove my public clothing in
the house of Parveen. I can vacuum though and a few other things
where my hands can mostly stay inside my
burqa, but someone else will have to
tell me if I have done it properly because with three layers of eye
veiling I can easily miss something."

Yasmin says "Oh my! I haven't got
permission from Sayed either. Yesterday it was permissible to remove
the public clothing because it was an emergency but I agree with
Salima that today it has to be permitted. I think we can show our
hands a little though, besides that it's full covering as
if we were in public."

Wafa says "It's alright, it's the
thought that counts. Two restricted women are
about the same as one with full mobility. Besides in total we might
be more effective as two women gossip much less than four. Are we
ready to go? I think Asma is expecting
me, she might be waiting outside already."

Yasmin and Salima nod and they both
start covering. While Yasmin as the last puts on her burqa Wafa,
having just flipped her burqa, down
makes her recall how she appeared yesterday just wearing salwar
kameez and holding her scarf across her face while the male paramedic
was present. This was how Yasmin has seen her until today, and
yesterday she wasn't coming in a hurry because of Parveen screaming.
With her voice very muffled she asks:

"Wafa, you don't usually wear a
burqa, do you?"

In a much less muffled voice Wafa
answers "No, I used just to cover my face with the
corner of my headscarf but as I
said to you yesterday, I have long
admired you and Salima's dedication to purdah and Parveen also found
it right to wear a burqa for going to the hospital. It made me think,
and when I shared my thoughts about covering further with my husband,
he fully supported me. I'm not wearing nearly as much as you two are
but as you have seen I now wear a short top of a pak-chador and
gloves and socks in addition to the burqa. It's quite a difference
from just a salwar kameez so I'm glad I have today to get more
accustomed to both being hot and restricted in mobility and sight
before the trip to the hospital tomorrow. But spiritually I already
feel better less than an hour after starting to cover like this. Each
time I'm physically bothered I'll just think of you two wearing much
more and then I guess I'll soon love wearing a
burqa."

During Wafa's speech Yasmin has gagged
herself for both her and Salima to congratulate Wafa on
her decision by leaning against her and touching
cheeks through their burqas.

A woman in a modest salwar kameez with
a large black semi-transparent scarf over her
head and down below the chest waits outside the door to Parveen's
yard. Wafa unlocks the door and continues across the yard to unlock
the front door of the house. While the three other women cross the
yard behind her, the new woman removes
the semi-transparent scarf and, while
looking from one peep-hole burqa to the other, says

"Asma, I'm pleased to meet you
Salima, who I assume is one of you."

Salima nods and then greets
Asma in the same way as she had
just congratulated Wafa. They all quickly notice that Jamal has been
home; the bed is unmade and there are crumbs
and an empty food box on the kitchen table. Surprised to see Wafa in
a burqa, Asma watches her remove it
only to get a bigger surprise. Seeing her expression Wafa says

"Good morning Asma. Yes, the
way that Yasmin and Salima dress made me think about what I
wear. Perhaps one day I'll dress like them but
I have just learned that purdah is not only covering but also when
and where to cover and uncover. Yasmin and Salima will stay as they
are because neither of them has got
permission from their husbands to remove their public covering in
Parveen's house. They can only vacuum
and wash the floors with a mop while we have to take care of the
kitchen, the bathroom, do the dusting, make the
bed and also check their work as their sight isn't much. On
the positive side they are mute so you can talk for two as usual."

Asma says "You are not the silent
type either Wafa. With them doing
the vacuuming it’s on the
positive side as well. I hate to step slowly around with that noisy
thing at my feet. Let's begin as I have
my own house to clean afterwards. Perhaps Yasmin or Salima will come
with me to vacuum over there as well. You can have tea with fresh
baked bread for the work."

Yasmin and Salima both shake their
head. Wafa says

"They have to go shopping for
presents to give Parveen when
they go to visit her. I’m guess that before getting ready to go to
the hospital this afternoon they have some housework of their own to
do."

Asma says "I understand. We have
to bring some presents as well Wafa but I have to clean just after we
are finished here as my husband will be home some of the afternoon.
What about quite early tomorrow morning after just a quick cleaning
of the house?"

Wafa answers "Suits me fin .
. ."

For Yasmin the last words
are drowned by the noise of the vacuum cleaner. She starts
vacuuming around and under the coffee table, Salima starts washing
the bedroom floor and Asma and Wafa start
cleaning the kitchen. From time to time Yasmin looks up to each time
see them chatting as well.

After forty-five minutes there is
nothing more Yasmin and Salima can do in their burqas. Yasmin
feels that they would have to have a break anyway. Just moving
around in all this clothing has made her quite hot and sweaty
even though they are in the shade
in a room where the temperature is just about
twenty-five degrees. When Wafa notices they have stopped
working she says

"You two
have a quite busy day ahead of you. Asma, don't you think we
should let them go?"

Asma answers "Yes, you have done
fine Yasmin and Salima. We are not that far from finished anyway.
Send my regards to Parveen and tell her she can look forward to
another visit tomorrow."

Wafa says "Give her my regards as
well of course. How about all three of you come to lunch the day
after tomorrow to learn what the others experienced when visiting
Parveen?"

The other three all nod several times
and then Yasmin and Salima touch cheeks
with each of the other and leave.

At the door to Yasmin's home Salima
pushes her away from the door and with her right hand makes her burqa
bulge while turning to face the local shopping area. Yasmin
understands and nods for them to walk on.

They know where to get sweets.
They each buy something to be able to quickly make dinner
after they return from the hospital and finally they look at all the
fruit stalls to select the most delicious ripe fruit available today.
Everything is done by pointing from inside the burqa as precisely as
possible and then shake the head if the shop assistant doesn’t
understand. Also they are skilled in handing their purse to
the shop assistant without showing their hands
even if they are wearing gloves by lifting the
burqa just to the knees.

Leaving the shopping area Yasmin stops
at the point where they have to go in different directions for each
to take the shortest way home. But
instead of parting Salima lifts a hand up to make the burqa bulge
over her mouth. This means she has something to say. Yasmin nods and
starts walking in the direction of Salima's home. When Salima came to
her it is now to take the detour, which is short anyway.

In the yard they could be heard by
someone outside although there is always street noise so Yasmin goes
with Salima inside the house and waits until she is ungagged and down
to her home veiling. Then Salima says

"I assume Sayed has told you Aziz
has ordered his taxi friend to be here at three o'clock for us to be
at the hospital from the beginning of visiting hours at four, but
what I really wanted to speak about is clothing. We can't walk into a
hospital where there are lots women to judge in our everyday clothes
looking exactly like what we are, a couple of lower middle class
women from a dusty outskirt of the city. I intend to dress much like
when we went on the picnic for your
birthday. I'll just ensure I'm able to unbuckle the ball gag as we
have to be able to speak this time."

Yasmin has neither removed any of her
clothes nor ungagged so she nods approvingly. But recalling what they
wore for the picnic makes her go to the bedroom and open a cupboard.
She produces a Gulf style leather mask for
Salima to say:

"That one as well I think. I know
you are concerned about that today we
are to speak and it attenuates the voice considerably. When you are
back we can test if we can understand one
another. Arrange your veils so that
you can reach up under to pull the bottom of the mask out.
That makes its attenuation much less."

Yasmin nods and walks towards the front
door so that Salima is close to her and
they are able to touch their cheeks through the burqa and her
pak-chador before saying:

"We could of course have had lunch
together but then you would have little time to
do some of your household chores and get ready to visit the hospital.
See you close to three o'clock."

On getting
home Yasmin spends forty-five minutes on housework and preparing as
much as possible of the dinner. Next she has a
quick lunch while standing at the
kitchen table and then takes a bath.

With just a towel around her she goes
into the bedroom to get dressed. If she spends
a half an hour dressing she estimates
she will be at Salima’s between
fifteen and twenty minutes before three o’clock.

First she puts on
a fresh set of underwear even though she
had only put on
clean ones that morning. Yasmin likes wearing colourful salwar
kameez even though it's only Sayed and
herself who sees it. She doesn't expect anyone else to see the set
she now puts on as well but going to a hospital wing especially for
modest purdah women an almost single coloured subdued set in silk so
it will match her elegant silk burqa is the right choice. Next
is the pak-chador. Normally she would fit her ball gag before putting
it on because this has a closed elastic strap which is bothersome to
fit after the pak-chador but today she will wear her large ball gag
with a leather strap
to buckle to actually block most sound instead of just reminding her
to be silent. She has a navy pak-chador
with matching navy dress that are both stylish
and modest, if she will get in a situation where she can dress
down to her private appearance. After putting the dress and the
pak-chador on Yasmin takes the gag up under the pak-chador, opens her
mouth as wide as she can so it just enables her
to put the ball into her mouth and then she takes the end of the
strap behind her head and buckles it.
It is no problem to fit and remove the gag with just the pak-chador
covering it.

Next is
the black leather mask. It has small circular holes,
just a little larger than the iris, for the
eyes, besides that it is only open downwards because it has no
nose protrusion for the lower edge to have a gap at
the chin which it reaches a little below to cover it seen directly
from the front. If anyone can see through the layers covering the
eyes the mask ensures not much more than the impersonal black pupils
are seen. This also means her peripheral vision is almost gone. As
Yasmin discussed with Salima, it
attenuates any sound which may escape despite the large ball gag
although this might be a disadvantage today. Yasmin doesn't
mind that the mask makes her face really
hot because she feels her face is really well protected. With two
narrow leather straps to be buckled at
the back of the head she easily fits it on top of her pak-chador. In
the unlikely case that she is going to dress down to private in the
hospital she will keep the mask on; its polished black leather looks
much better than the pak-chador fabric.

Her black sets with boushiya look about
the same. They are all plain black cotton with a piece of sheer black
material attached to the khimar-like
waist long head covering. They are designed to hide class differences
so modest pious women don't stick out displaying their wealth and for
that this covering has to be simple and cheap for all to afford.
Yasmin and Salima don't wear it outermost but not to
in any way reveal in public how they appear
in private when the burqa has to be lifted a little for taking
shopping items inside it, walk up stairs, walking on wet muddy ground
and such. Also the boushiya helps conceal
what little can be seen through the
peep-holes or mesh of their burqas.

To show fully in black Yasmin next puts
on knee length black stockings over
the top of the salwar and elbow long black gloves on top of
the sleeves of the black cotton dress. Today for the occasion she
selects a pair of gloves much thicker than normal.

Lastly Yasmin
takes the burqa out of the cupboard. She holds it up and turns it in
front of the mirror to admire it before putting it on even though she
cannot see it clearly or feel the
soft smooth quality of the silk. It is thicker and sweeping the
ground more than her everyday burqas thus hiding her better, except
for the eyes where its two circular meshes, although dense,
are larger than the peep-holes of her other burqas. This makes her
place a note in her mind to always wear the leather mask with this
burqa. She holds the mass of fabric over her head, aligns the meshes
with her eyes, fits the cap and finally lets all the fabric fall down
to the floor to cover her completely. She is ready to visit Parveen.

But before she leaves the house she
first tests that she can reach the buckle of her gag to
undo it. There is now a lot of fabric to lift and with her
thick gloves she has some difficulty of getting hold of the strap
and unbuckle them but she manages and does them
up again, now one notch tighter. Next she goes to the kitchen,
takes a glass and a straw and half fills
it from the tap. The large ball in her mouth has a tube
through its centre for drinking and besides it's good to get some
liquid before going out in the sun in this hot outfit.
She also tests if she can reach up to the lower edge of the
mask and hold it out; this time not for speaking but to reach the
tube of the gag and test that the mask can be
pulled out sufficiently for removing the ball from her mouth. There
is quite some resistance from the boushiya and the burqa but she
succeeds.

It's the usual walk to Salima's house
but Yasmin has to walk slower than normal because the burqa both
sweeps the ground more and is heavier to lift. Salima opens the door
to her fully dressed in burqa as well. They cross the yard to wait
for the taxi inside the house. Salima's burqa lifts at mouth level
and when it falls naturally again Yasmin hears a voice,
unrecognisable and unintelligible to her because of heavy muffling,
say

"U ca't n-s-a t 'm ay-g, ca u?"

Yasmin shakes her head for Salima's
burqa to bulge at her chin and then speak again

"Now you should be able to
understand me."

Although the voice is still very
muffled it is now intelligible so Yasmin nods for Salima to go on

"It’s like
when I tried alone. The leather mask has to be held out to be
understood. Please try."

It takes a little while before Yasmin
speaks because she first has to unbuckle her ball gag and pull it out
before she can copy Salima

"This is certainly much more
complicated than handling our usual gag with elastic strap. You got
this, didn't you?"

Salima answers "I wouldn't
recognise you from what I hear, but despite your voice is muffled and
weak I understand you. I'm ready, if you are.
Let's both mute ourselves and wait for the taxi in silence. It
should be here in less than fifteen minutes. As I'm going to lock up
the house I suggest you take the bag over there with the presents."

Yasmin nods and after
fitting the gag again she goes over to take the bag up inside
her burqa not to forget it.

A little surprisingly
a horn sounds in the street outside before the fifteen minutes has
passed. When Yasmin comes out in the street a taxi is at the kerb
right outside. The driver is about to draw black curtains for the
back seat windows and the rear window and the back of the front seats
are already curtained. Seeing the two women he says

"The wife of Saiz and her friend?"

They both nod for him to go on

"I have put a business card on the
middle back seat. Take it and show it at the hospital reception desk
when your visit is over and they will call for me. I have written a
note I'll hand to the receptionist when we arrive to inform them
about your names and who you are to visit. It's not rush hour yet so
we might be there in just forty minutes, God willing."

He holds the door at each side and
closes it when each is seated. Allah knows when a life is over so
there is no need to buckle the seat belts.

3. The hospital

Likely because the driver is afraid the
curtains will be lifted by the wind only those at the front are
rolled down. It quickly gets hot and although it isn't totally dark
Yasmin and Salima with their layers of
eye veiling can't see a thing. This combination quickly makes both of
them drowsy and they lean against each other and doze off.

The driver must have noticed or
anticipated this because suddenly they are abruptly awaken by his
voice saying very loudly

"LADIES! We turn into the hospital
grounds at the next light."

Yasmin has no idea how long the ride
has taken but she feels very hot and sweaty. Fortunately the hospital
is air-conditioned. When they get out of
the car Yasmin sees they are parked among a lot of other taxis; it
is, or is close to,
visiting hours. The driver takes them towards a large air-lock door
where there is a large sign. ‘Jina
Memorial Hospital Female-only wing’ it says
with a smaller sign beneath it with an arrow ‘Reception’
and on another sign in smaller text
below ‘Men may enter the reception
room’.

Inside more than twenty women are
waiting. About two thirds are wearing burqa, the rest are veiled by
a pak-chador or a scarf across the face. It is certainly the modest
women coming here because less than twenty percent of the Karachi
women in general wear a burqa. Behind
the reception desk three female receptionists probably have the
busiest time of their working
day. There are lines of three to five people in front of each
receptionist. Their driver of course lines up behind the three.

The receptionists are identically
dressed in medical green fabric only. A medical style gown almost to
the ankles, latex gloves, shoe covers and a short pak-chador with its
face part covering the entire face so
that the eyes are the only part of the
receptionists showing. When reaching the front of a line all the
women hand the receptionist a note while some men speak and some,
like their driver, hand over a note as well. In the same movement
their driver hands over his note he points at Yasmin and Salima and
without a word turns around a walks toward the exit. As
for the other female visitors the receptionist writes a number for
each on a tag and leans over the counter to pin it on the chest to
then gesture they have to wait. Yasmin
and Salima both get the same number: ORT2-18. All the seats are
occupied. Yasmin looks around and notices that the tags have
different colours; theirs are dark green. Many women are grouped in
front of one of the three doors leading into the hospital. Next to
each door are signs with a few letters and one or two digits which
she assumes is a code for the different
departments. The code of the department they are going to visit was
probably on the note their taxi driver had. She also notices that the
colours of the tags of women waiting at one door doesn't overlap the
tag colours at the other doors, so the colours in some way indicate
the department each is going to visit. Yasmin nods to Salima in the
direction of the door where women wear their colour and steps in that
direction but staying some steps from the group.

Suddenly all three doors open almost at
once and several women, all dressed
identically in white,
appear in each doorway. First the three women
wearing white at their door gesture the group right at the
door to go a little into the corridor. One points to the left, the
other to the right and the third at the middle of the corridor.
Yasmin realises the women in each of the new smaller groups all wear
a tag of the same colour and that the small
towel each white woman wears in her belt
has the same colour as the visitor tags the small groups have. So it
is no surprise that it is the white woman with the dark green towel
who moments later gestures Salima and her to join the dark green
group to the left. The white women scan the reception room and each
goes to collect a few other visiting women with a tag of their
colour.

Meanwhile Yasmin takes a closer look at
the rather odd looking white dressed women.
Their bodies appear normal enough: a loose medical gown of white
fabric to mid-calf with a cloth strap as a belt around the waist
probably more to avoid the top of the dress catching
on things or knocking loose items to the floor than to hold
the coloured towel. White latex gloves and long white shoe covers
that went up under the hem of the gown
could also be seen. But it
was the head covering that really caught the eye. From the
eyes upward what appeared to be a normal
hijab which is probably made of medical fabric could
be seen. The women’s lower
faces were covered by a very thick
medical cotton pad and held tight to the
face by a thick piece of cloth completely covering the pad, wound
twice around the neck and head and tied at the
top at the back of the head. The extraordinary head covering
is made even stranger by the area
around the eyes not covered by fabric being hidden behind a
pair of very dark black goggles.
Although Yasmin wears several layers of face covering it is only the
burqas, and especially the burqa she wears now, which really are so
dense they affect her breathing, but they are not pressed against the
lower face so the air inside the burqa, although often hot, can reach
her nose from below. It makes her shiver a little when trying to
imagine how it feels to breathe through this thick tight fabric. But
of course they can, and they have to be able to see through the dark
goggles as well. But can they speak she wonders
as she has not heard a female voice since entering but of
course the door to the reception room where males are allowed is
still open.

Apparently having gathered all the
visiting women having arrived so far the
women in white start slowly begin
walking down the long wide corridor. They seem to be able to walk
much faster but have to walk at a pace
all visitors can follow. Entering a hall Yasmin sees more women
dressed in white and some mainly in blue, some two or three
together but none accompanying visitors. The three white dressed
women with visitors take different directions. Yasmin, Salima and
their dark green tag companions take a
door on the left half way down the hall, which leads to narrower
corridor. While she produces a print-out the visitors waiting close
to the door in the reception room slowly starts walking on. The woman
in white nods to them and they start heading for some of the doors
along this corridor; apparently they have been visiting the same
patient before and know where to go. There
are five women left to follow the woman in white down the corridor.
At the second door to the right she stops, points at one woman and
holds the print-out up for them all to see that on its 'back' with as
large font as possible is written 'Please wait right inside the
door.' Two doors further down on the left the white woman stops
again and points at Yasmin and Salima. Again she starts lifting the
print-out but they both nod immediately for Yasmin to approach the
door with a sign saying ORT2, which then opens.

It's a short corridor which is probably
just wide enough for two beds to pass each other. They seem to have
reached the ward where Parveen is. Yasmin has just concluded this
when a new women in white comes out from a door at the middle of the
corridor and approaches them. She looks at their tags, gestures them
to follow her back down the corridor. Three doors down on the right
the white woman gently opens the door with the sign '16 - 19' ajar
and peeps in. Then she opens it fully and shows Yasmin and Salima to
the second bed on the right out of four.

A woman wearing a
dark green burqa with sleeves sits half upright in the bed leaned
against a white pillow and reading a
gossip magazine. A white sheet covers the bed surface and another one
is stretched tightly out over the woman from waist down with the ends
tucked under the mattress. Its right
corner is folded back so that the foot
and right leg to mid calf is revealed to be
covered in a cast. The
foot is lifted five inches up by a sling hanging from a stand from
the corner of the bed end. This makes it very likely it is Parveen in
the bed. She doesn't notice someone is present. The woman in white
gestures towards three chairs standing under a
window to the left of the bed. The windows have shutters which
are turned to make the room just a little dim without the electric
light turned on. When Parveen still doesn't
react to them the woman in white pats the covering sheet on
Parveen's thigh. Parveen looks up to see them, puts the magazine on
the bedside table to the right then,
with her white gloved left hand, she
takes a hold of the cuff of the dark
green right burqa sleeve and pulls her right arm and hand inside the
burqa. A bulge appears over the mouth and a few seconds later a voice
a little less muffled than that of Yasmin and Salina says,
as the right hand appears from the sleeve again

"Welcome guests. You may speak
anywhere in the ward but please keep your
voices low."

Yasmin and Salima reach
up under all their head covering to the back of their heads to
unbuckle their gags. It takes a little while for both to be able to
remove the ball from their mouth and then they remember they have to
hold their leather masks out from the mouth to be heard.

When this has
been achieved Yasmin speaks. "Hello Parveen, it's Yasmin
and with me is Salima."

Salima says "Pleased to meet you
Parveen. What a terrible accident you had. Yasmin has told me all
about it. You sound in a good mood now. Your foot clearly shows you
have been taken care of for you to lie here and relax with a
magazine."

Parveen says "Please sit down.
Yes, I got some pills so nothing hurts and I relax. Jamal brought the
magazine when we met in a male visitor's room last night."

Yasmin lifts her
burqa from the inside for the bag with their presents to show and
then starts lifting it up revealing more and more of her black dress
while saying "We brought something for you as well. Please
stretch your hand down as much as possible. Although this is a
female-only wing I don't want to reveal more than absolutely
necessary."

Parveen gets hold of the bag, places it
in her lap and then starts pulling fruit bags and sweet
boxes out of the carrier bag to utter “Oh”
and “Wow”
several times. When the carrier bag is empty she holds up a
box of sweets and says

"Uum, Fakhar's special recipe
coconut laddu is a favourite of mine. If I eat all these
treats I'll need to exercise when I get home
and I think I have to take it easy with my leg for a while. I'll
share everything except the laddu with my bedfellow Fatima."

Parveen gestures to the bed next to her
own where another dark green burqa lies down as if sleeping and with
a tight sheet covering her from waist down as well. Hearing her name
makes Fatima lift her head and turn it towards them. As Fatima and
Yasmin and Salima can barely see each other because the last two are
sitting down with Parveen's bed between them Yasmin and Salima stand
up, bow and Yasmin says

"Pleased to meet you Fatima. My
name is Yasmin, I'm Parveen's neighbour, and with me is my best
friend Salima who lives quite close to
us."

Fatima gets to sit more upright and
says "It's wonderful to have good neighbours coming right away
when you have an accident Yasmin. Parveen has told me all about what
happened. We keep each other company. I have a good neighbour as well
which may have saved my life when my husband beat me severely because
the chicken sajji didn't taste of enough
garlic. She took me to her house and got someone to call an
ambulance. I have broken several ribs and got some bad burns on my
thighs when I was thrown against the stove."

Parveen says "Fatima and I do our
best to entertain each other. Her neighbour can't afford to come to
visit and you are the first to come and visit me here. Even if
there is someone here during all
the visiting hours there are many more hours to kill and you can't
read or doze the entire day."

Salima says "Asma and Wafa are
coming to visit you at this time tomorrow. They send their warmest
regards. Jamal has lent your keys to
Wafa's husband so we girls cleaned
your house this morning. You had your accident just after starting
cleaning and you won't be able to do as much as usual when you
get home."

Parveen says "Please come and lean
over the bed so I can hug you both. You would see tears of joy if I
wasn't veiled."

After Salima, as
the last to have been hugged Yasmin says
"You have to give Asma and Wafa an
even longer and tighter hug tomorrow because we could only do a
little of the work having to stay in full purdah for public. This
happened because Salima didn't
know about the cleaning and thus couldn't have asked her husband, and
I because I didn't think of asking Sayed."

Parveen says "Keeping purdah the
way one has chosen of course takes precedence. Maybe my stay here
will make me at least dress more modestly in the future. I have been
wearing a burqa constantly since you,
Yasmin, helped me into my own at home, so I'm getting accustomed to
it. X-rays go through any clothing and when I first had my leg
examined my burqa was just folded up to the waist. Then I was dressed
in hospital clothes including this burqa. It was folded up to the
waist for having the cast applied but
since then it has only been pushed up for the right leg to be
uncovered up to the knee. For the general tests they do several times
a day taking blood samples, measuring blood pressure and some other
parameters just my right sleeve is removed. The sleeves of these
hospital burqas are attached to the body with a zipper and can be
replaced with a pad for the arms to be confined inside the burqa like
yours are, but my lying on my burqa and
held firmly down by the top sheet I wouldn't be able to pull the hem
of the burqa so high I can use my hands and arms like you. For
drinking the burqa has a slit over the
mouth and so I can eat a sleeve is
removed and I take both my arms inside the burqa. The food has to go
in through the arm opening. A thing is that the zippers can only be
handled from the outside so only the nurses removes them and put
them on. Fatima has chosen to have her arms in sleeves even though
she hasn't got anything to read, the woman opposite her on the other
hand chose to have her arms confined inside the burqa by
asking the nurse who cleared up after
lunch to close the arm openings with pads."

"The woman opposite?" Yasmin
asks inquiringly. Both the opposite beds appear to be empty.

Parveen answers "Yes, Fatima and I
do not have this room to ourselves. It looks like the beds
opposite are used to store cushions or the like but they
contain living bodies completely covered by a tightly
stretched sheet from head to toe; the sheets of Fatima and I
are the same but just folded to only cover from the waist down. From
eleven at night until
six in the morning and for a one hour nap after lunch we are
completely confined like them. The patient opposite Fatima has asked
to be completely covered as much as possible because she is extremely
pious. The other patient is covered because she needs a lot of sleep,
poor thing. A nurse comes to ask how she feels and take measurements
every two hours. Often she has to wake her."

Fatima adds "You can see for
yourself as it should happen within
minutes and as it seems this patient is neither specially
religious or what the nurses do isn't distasteful to watch or
humiliating to show they don't hide the
bed behind the curtains. Please just don't stare."

Salima asks "You don't wear any of
your own clothes now I assume. I'm curious as
to what is beneath the burqa, if I may ask?"

Parveen answers "You are right, I
wear only hospital clothing, so I won't reveal any secrets of mine by
telling you. You have seen how the receptionists are dressed? Good. I
would appear very much like them if my burqa was removed. Everything
is white except the short pak-chador and the gloves which are dark
green. The medical gown is longer than theirs reaching the ankles.
The salwar are baggier and of course we
don't wear clogs, only stockings
that reach the knees. I only wear the left stocking and my
right salwar leg is rolled up above my cast.
The elbow long gloves as you can see are not latex but thin opaque
cotton. Although the receptionists look a bit odd not showing an eye
slit but only two circular eye holes I can say from wearing the same
thing that it seems to be only an
improvement. The peripheral vision is of course reduced but you are
better hidden and unpinning the face part of the pak-chador and
revealing your face for example for eating is just the same as with
ordinary pak-chadors. Against my skin I am
wearing a quite immodest one piece suit.
I want to find a place that sells something similar because
I'm sure Jamal will love it."

Yasmin asks "And it seems to me
you removed a gag when seeing us?"

Parveen answers "Yes I wore a not
that large ball gag with an elastic strap. I can just reach up and
take hold of it through the fabric of the pak-chador to pull it out
of the mouth and then push it beneath the chin without needing to
unpin the pak-chador and using just one hand. Getting it up over the
chin again is a little more difficult. I have never used a gag before
but, like the burqa, I've gotten used to it. Wearing a gag
when not speaking or eating is mandatory and
the hospital has several types and sizes of gags to choose
from. The nurses are always mute. You mainly ask them to do something
for you by pointing to whatever you need done
on a long list of tasks they hold up. If your arms are
confined they put a pointing stick through the mouth slit of the
burqa into the gag tube. Women using the burqa sleeves as
Fatima and I are may also write what we have to say, but I
haven't been in a situation where I felt I need that. The female
doctors are dressed almost like the nurses with at least as thick a
face covering but they have a small microphone between their lips
instead of a ball gag and its sound comes out through a small speaker
between the breasts. We are not supposed to speak to them but if they
address us and we don't understand we can write a question to a nurse
afterwards."

Salima asks "Am I right in
thinking that all nurses are dressed entirely in white and
doctors in blue with white gloves footwear and face covering? I saw
those two outfits in the large hall we crossed."

Parveen answers "You are almost
right. There are also female porters and secretaries. They all are
dressed like the receptionists but wear a thick medical mask on top
of the pak-chador. The porters are dressed
in all yellow and the secretaries in all green exactly like the
receptionists. I think the latter put on
a mask as well when leaving the
reception area."

Parveen hesitated a moment and said the
rest almost whispering because the door has opened and a nurse with a
trolley walks towards the bed opposite Parveen. She goes to the head
end of the bed and pulls the top sheet down at
an angle to reveal the dark green burqa
to the thigh in the side where she stands but only to the chest on
the other side. While the nurse zips the pad covering the arm opening
off the patient for some seconds she lifts
the head from the pillow just enough to
see Yasmin and Salima. Perhaps she has not been
sleeping but listening to their conversation. Next the nurse reaches
into the arm opening with a cuff to measure blood pressure and soon
after the blood pressure monitor buzzes. When it stops the cuff is
removed and a zip in the kameez sleeve is opened. A needle is
inserted into the patient’s arm and
blood starts to flow into a small test
tube. A wad of cotton is secured over
the needle mark with a piece of plaster. The
sleeve is zipped shut again and
the nurse, waiting ready with a pen,
shows the patient a sheet of paper.
The patient points to the paper and
the nurse nods several times, perhaps approvingly. The
nurse is surprised when the
hand comes so far out of the sleeve opening that the arm shows
up to the elbow. The patient is first pointing
towards Parveen and then towards Fatima. The nurse repeats these
movements and the patient nods. The
nurse walks over between the beds of
Parveen and Fatima. She shows the sheet to both of them. It is a
question with five answers to select from:

Are you feeling

(a) Much better

(b) Better

(c) About the same

(d) Worse

(e) Much worse

They see that (b)
has been ticked. This makes
Parveen and Fatima clap their hands. The nurse goes back to the
opposite bed and gestures if the patient now wants the burqa sleeves
attached. She shakes her head for the nurse to zip the pad over the
arm opening and start pulling the top sheet over her upper body and
head again. The patient lets the sheet press her flat down again and
as the nurse turns to the trolley it's again
hard to tell there is a living woman in
the bed.

When the door has closed behind the
nurse Salima says "You said it wasn't distasteful what the nurse
would do with the patient opposite, but when she inserted
the needle and the blood flowed I felt a little sick."

Parveen says "I have no problems
except my leg and have already
delivered blood samples three
times. It hurts less than if you happen to prick yourself with a
sewing needle. I was a little afraid before the first prick but as I
could hardly feel it I have been relaxed since."

Yasmin says "I noticed
the nurses bringing us here didn't wear a tag for
identification and neither did this nurse,
and seeing this nurse close up from both front and back there doesn't
seem to be any embroidery or print on her gown or head scarf either.
If it's the same one that bought us here
or another one I can't tell."

Parveen answers "I can't tell them
apart either. It's the same with the doctors and the secretaries. I
think this wing is for women in purdah.
Although the doctors and nurses
have to show
their arms and their lower legs to be able to do their work they
practice purdah as much as they can, and being anonymous is a part of
purdah. You may have noticed there are
no names on or around our beds. We are mainly identified by our room
or bed number, but I have discovered there is a name tag attached to
the inside of the burqa hem."

Fatima says "I think the nurses
and secretaries are assigned a number on
the duty list. I saw a nurse coming in here, point at a nurse already
here serving lunch and raising seven fingers towards her to make the
nurse here nod and the new nurse leave again. I think the nurse came
to learn that nurse seven was serving lunch in here."

Yasmin says "It seems plausible
Fatima. Salima and I are effectively anonymous as well as our tag
only connects us with this bed here and very few know
who occupies it."

Parveen opens a bag with apples and
says "There are six so we can
easily have one each. I feel thirsty from all this talking.
These apples look very juicy and
it's good to get something in your stomach in between the proper
meals as well. Would one of you pass
Fatima an apple?"

Salima passes an
apple to Fatima. Meanwhile Yasmin watches as Parveen takes an apple
and then pulls the arm and hand with the apple out of the burqa
sleeve and inside the burqa and she realises
that neither Salima nor herself has an easy access to their own
mouth. Parveen realises this and shows her hand again to take
the bag and hold it as low down the side of the bed as possible.
Yasmin and Salima in turn lift their burqas from the inside until
their black gloved hands can get hold of
an apple.

They enjoy the apples in silence for
some minutes. Then Yasmin asks Parveen

"Have you got any information
about how long you are going to have to
stay here?"

Parveen apparently has to chew and
swallow a large bite of apple before she
answers "Yes, the doctor this morning said that the tests showed
that my body had reacted as expected during the night. If it keeps
going like this I can be discharged after dinner the day after
tomorrow, but there is always a small risk of fever and a very small
risk of infection. It also requires Jamal can find a doctor to check
my leg in a few weeks time and replace my cast
if necessary. I'll ask him to find a female doctor when he
comes to visit me tonight."

Yasmin says "Then we'll arrange
for someone to visit you the day after tomorrow as well."

Parveen says "No don't bother
please. It's quite expensive to
travel here. With the prospect of going
home after dinner and with Fatima to
talk to I can easily manage an afternoon
without a visit."

Yasmin says "Then let's wait and
see if you can say the same to Asma and
Wafa tomorrow. Anyway I'll invite you
for a homecoming lunch party the day
after you come home. Salima, Asma and Wafa will be invited as well of
course."

Parveen says "You are such a good
neighbour. Before I was taken away by the ambulance we all agreed
that we ought to see much more of each
other. This lunch party is the perfect start to
this."

Yasmin says "Good, now that
everything is . . ."

The door is opened by a nurse who holds
the door for a doctor and a second nurse with a trolley before she
enters herself closing the door behind her. The doctor steps up to
the end of Fatima's bed and bows her head in
greeting. Immediately following he gestures to the nurses to
draw the curtains around the bed. A muffled voice with an electronic
sound says

"It's time to have your burns
treated again and the bandages changed madam. Please confirm you are
ORT2-16. Good, we can't be too safe
although it's completely unlikely we have another patient with
similar burns at the same spots at the same time. Nurse please."

Parveen, Yasmin and Salima listen in
silence to the sounds indicating activity behind the curtains, and
now and then the curtains move as well. After some minutes Parveen
gestures Yasmin and Salima to get up from their chairs and lean their
heads towards her. Whispering she says

"Like this I think we
can continue our conversation."

Yasmin then whispers "I was about
to say that now everything seems settled I think it's time for us to
leave. But it would be rude to leave without saying goodbye to
Fatima. How long do you think the doctor will stay?"

Parveen whispers "The only thing I
can say is that this morning a doctor
with two nurses came to Fatima as well and the curtains were closed
for ten to fifteen minutes I think."

Salima then whispers "We'll stay
Yasmin. It will only mean that dinner might be delayed and I'm sure
Aziz and Sayed won't complain. It is them who have arranged our
transport after all."

Parveen whispers "Please remember
to thank your husband’s for me for
doing that and paying for your trip."

Yasmin whispers "I recall that I
was reading a used fashion magazine I got from our friend Leila. It
was actually Salima who introduced us to each other. You have some
used magazines as well, don't you?"

Salima whispers "Yes, Leila was a
secretary in a fashion bureau for a year or so before she got
married. I have three or four old magazines at the moment I think.
The taxi driver can take us to my house
so you can pick up the magazines,
take them home with you and hand them over to Asma for her and
Wafa to bring them when they come to visit
tomorrow."

Yasmin whispers "It's nothing
really. When Salima tells Leila what has happened to her magazines
Leila will just get some more for us.
What are your favourite dishes Parveen? I have to be sure I’ll
serve something you like for your homecoming
lunch party."

Parveen names some dishes and a vivid
discussion about how to make each results several times in speech
louder than whispering for a few seconds until the two other hush the
offender. The discussion temporarily stops
when the curtains around Fatima's bed are drawn back immediately
followed by the doctor leaving with the two nurses following. Yasmin
and Salima look at Fatima's bed in dismay. All there is to see is a
white sheet tightly stretched out over one or more objects as
in the beds opposite. Yasmin and Salima
both go over and lean down over where Fatima's head is and Yasmin
says loudly as before the doctor came

"Fatima it's Yasmin. Salima and I
are about to leave. We wish you well and
hope you can get your life sorted out. Goodbye!"

"Goodbye from Salima as well,"
says Salima.

There is no reaction at all. The sheet
moves even less than that of the patient opposite Parveen. Parveen
then says "I think she is in a deep sleep, perhaps even
unconscious due to an injection. It seems to be the same as this
morning but I wouldn't tell you as it first appeared to me as
being different. If it is like this
morning she will wake in about an hour.
I think it is up to her if she wants to tell me what is done to her,
but I think she is sedated because it's very unpleasant to have her
burns cleaned."

Yasmin and Salima have turned to face
Parveen again. Yasmin says

"I think I have read or seen on
television the same as you say as well Parveen. Then there is nothing
we can do but to ask you to give her our most sincere regards. How do
we get out of here?"

Parveen says "I'll call a nurse."

She taps the palm of her left hand with
her right hand a number of times until a beep sounds from the wall
above the head end of the bed where a red light turns on as well,
as does another red light above the door.

Parveen continues "Tapping the
right palm at least five times starts the call. This can be done even
if you are fully confined by the sheet and it doesn't need to be the
other hand you use to tap the palm. Thank you so much for coming here
and for the presents. Please tell Asma and Wafa that I’m
looking forward to seeing them tomorrow. And of course I very
much look forward to seeing all of you
in a few days back home. I have almost forgotten
about my leg while you are here."

Salima says "I wish everything
goes normal for you for us to meet again in three days."

The door opens and Yasmin quickly says
"I wish you a speedy recovery as well Parveen."

Parveen points to Yasmin and Salima to
make the nurse produce the list of tasks that Parveen had mentioned
earlier. The nurse has of course understood what they want so she
points at 'Visitors leave' and Parveen nods to confirm she is right.
The nurse then indicates that they may
embrace Parveen before they leave and of course they do. Finally she
then holds a fist to her mouth for them to mute themselves facing
first Yasmin and Salima and then, a little surprisingly to them,
Parveen. But then Yasmin recalls that Parveen was gagged when they
came and she had said it is mandatory
for the patients to be gagged whenever they don't have to use their
mouth. Because Parveen uses a ball gag on
an elastic strap and Yasmin and Salima have a leather strap to be
buckled Parveen takes her hand down from her head before the two
other. When Parveen’s hand comes out
of the burqa sleeve again the nurse leans over her and guides her to
fold her hands on the chest, and almost in the same movement she
grabs the edge of the top sheet and starts pulling it
up over Parveen's upper body and head. A suppressed cry
of surprise escapes from her mouth despite the ball gag and it is the
sheet and not herself which makes her lie down flat on the bed.
Yasmin hasn't got used to seeing a
normal burqa clad woman be erased like
this. The sight stays in her mind for a while as they follow the
nurse out of the room.

Rather expectedly
she leads them out of the ward where they came in. As the door
automatically opens she stops and gestures them to wait right
outside. There are other visitors waiting at some of the other doors
in the corridor. A few more come out from the wards while they wait.
Yasmin becomes aware of that her hands are now hanging relaxed down
the sides after one of them has been lifted to hold the leather mask
out from the mouth during most of the
visit. After close to ten minutes a nurse comes out from one of the
last doors and walks along the corridor while continually
gesturing the visitors to follow her. Yasmin isn't sure she
could have found the wide corridor to the reception room on her own.
It is not until they are almost at the
doorway that she sees a sign saying
'Reception.'

There are now four receptionists
on duty as visitors are both coming and going. When it is
their turn at the counter the receptionist simply looks their tag
number up on her monitor and gestures them to go to the far left of
the room, wait for their number to appear on a display and then go to
the exit. The display shows five numbers at once and when a new one
appears the others move down and the oldest disappears.
Yasmin has plenty of time to grasp this because it takes about twenty
minutes before their number appears. Just outside the exit,
taxi drivers and other men await the women observing the tags coming
out. The taxi driver who brought them to the
hospital recognises them moments before Yasmin and Salima
recognise him. In the darkness of the
taxi they both immediately fall asleep.

4. The hospital visit has consequences

The next day,
late in the morning,
Salima visits Yasmin. While Yasmin is
tea they talk about their
visit to the hospital. First when they have been seated at the
coffee table for some minutes and enjoyed the tea and a biscuit
Salima says

"I couldn't get the sight of these
beds holding inhuman forms covered by a sheet out of my
mind. When Aziz and I were ready to go to bed I found a large sheet
and after I had placed myself on my back in the
middle of the bed I asked him to tuck it tightly under the mattress.
It was a very special and quite erotic
experience. Although the sheet was thinner than even our daily life
burqas it quickly felt more restricting to breathe and I also got hot
as if in the sun even if it was a
relatively cool night, but most strangely,
instead of dozing off, I started to
daydream.

I was a nurse sweating and out of
breath from the first minute on duty due to being covered in thick
white layers of fabric from head to toe and especially across the
lower face. The only task I had to do was to go from room to room and
ensure all patients were tightly secured under
a sheet, and if they weren’t do so.
It was only the doctors who could order
a sheet to be lifted. Visitors had to speak to a bed sheet and the
patient was unable to see even the burqas of her visitors.

Every two to two and a half hours
each nurse had a break. We went to a room with a dozen hammocks
covered by sheets hanging down almost to the floor. There we first
chose a plastic bottle with a drinking tube
attached from a selection of beverages, then a fresh face
covering pad and the thick piece of cloth to hold it and cover the
lower face and lastly a plastic bag with
cleansing tissues and a new pair of
latex gloves. We then walked to an empty
hammock, where the sheet was already loosely fitted around the
hammock by one half by having eyelets
along the lower edges with a lace fitted to tighten the sheet around
the hammock. I flipped the unlaced half of the sheet back, climbed
into the hammock and flipped the sheet
back over my head. Now having the head covered I took my goggles off,
untied the humid sweaty cloth over my nose and mouth for the now
almost unbreathable pad to be removed.
After that I cleaned
my face before putting a hand outside
of the sheet to drop the used tissues,
pad and cloth on the floor. I then
placed the bottle on my chest and led the
tube into my mouth to start drinking. The items being dropped on the
floor had the nurse taking care of the
room come and put the laces through the remaining eyelets and then
start making the lacing as tight as she could. About two minutes
after I entered the room she left the hammock with me unable to do
anything but flex my fingers and my toes; and speak. I said 'fifteen
tucked in', which outside my hammock sounded low and muffled due to
heavy duty fabric of the sheet. Three other numbers answered and we
gossiped about celebrities for about ten minutes. Then one by one the
voices stopped. Our minds started daydreaming being one of the
women or with one of the men we had been gossiping about. This state
was broken by the sheet being unlaced. Then I pulled the tube out of
my mouth, put the fresh pad across the lower
part of my face, tied the thick cloth around my head to have
the head heavily covered and press the pad firmly against the face,
fitted the goggles and finally replaced the latex gloves.

I left the hammock for a new period on
duty.

I was about to dream on about what I
would do as a nurse after work when my covering sheet was touched.
Aziz cut a hole in the sheet right above my crotch. I'm sure I would
have sounded much louder than Parveen when she stumbled, but by
ecstasy, if I had gone to bed without
the ball gag for once. Now it was only Aziz who heard and sensed my
total bliss. We drifted to sleep after
the best sex since our honeymoon."

After almost a minute of silence Yasmin
finally says "I have to say I found those
sheet covered beds a bit frightening, but after this account of yours
there is no doubt I’ll have to try
this as well. Our visit made a totally different idea come to my mind
but going to help Parveen the day before yesterday and visiting her
yesterday have spoiled my usual weekly schedule of household
chores. I may have got on with my idea by tomorrow."

Salima says "Yes, I'm behind as
well. I better get on my way . . ."

She is interrupted by the door bell.
Yasmin fits her gag and puts her bushiya loosely over her head and
shoulders and crosses the yard to open the door to the street. A
woman in a conservative dark blue salwar kameez and wearing a
boushiya on top as well points from herself and then twice to the
left to confirm Yasmin's assumption that it is Asma. While crossing
the yard Asma removes her bushiya and unpins the scarf from
across her face to finally confirm her identity, but she still
surprises Yasmin when she sees that Asma is
wearing a black ball gag in her mouth held by an elastic strap
similar to what Yasmin herself is wearing. Having peeked out the
house front door to see a woman coming Salima has decided to delay
leaving and not even gagged herself. When Asma appears in the doorway
her eyes widen on seeing the ball gag
but being fully veiled the look on her face is hidden and she just
says

"Nice to meet you again Asma. It's
Salima as you might have guessed."

Yasmin and Asma remove
their gags and Yasmin says
"Welcome Asma, would you like a cup of tea?"

Asma answers "Pleased to meet you
both again. No thank you. You know I have a busy afternoon ahead of
me going to visit Parveen. Wafa has invited me for lunch at
her house and right after we dress for our
visit to the hospital and await our transport.
Dressing for the visit is why I came. I
was returning from shopping yesterday when I saw a woman in an
elegant white burqa leave this house. Am I right it in
thinking it was you Yasmin going to Salima’s
to be transported to the hospital? Assuming you are not going to use
that burqa for the next twenty-four hours perhaps I could borrow it
as my own cheap blue one is not really
appropriate for visiting this highly esteemed hospital where they
take modesty really seriously?"

Salima immediately adds "I also
went in a burqa very similar to that of Yasmin. Does
Wafa have an appropriate burqa? If not she can borrow mine. I was
just about to leave. I won't mind going three houses in the wrong
direction first, and if she would like to borrow my burqa one
of you can accompany me home to get it right away. It only
takes fifteen to twenty minutes up and down."

Asma shows an appreciative look and
says "I'm quite sure she only has a burqa like my own. You are
both very gracious. Do we leave right away Salima?"

Asma immediately gags herself and
seeing Salima nod she covers her face and puts the bushiya on to be
ready to leave when Salima starts putting on her black dress. When
Salima fits her burqa Asma turns to Yasmin and
hugs her. A little surprisingly to both of them Salima doesn't
start moving towards the door when her burqa drops to the floor but
instead her voice sounds low and muffled by the layers of fabric
covering her mouth

"While I was
dressing it occurred to me that it has been me coming here to get
acquainted with you Asma and Wafa as well. None of you have been to
my home and we can't be good friends without knowing how each live.
Why don't all three of you come to me for afternoon tea tomorrow?
Then we can exchange hospital experiences and I can get my burqa
back. There is no obligation to veil like Yasmin and I to visit my
home. Just leave together and the one who
accompanies me now to borrow the burqa doesn't even need to
take notice of the route as I guess Yasmin can
find my house walking while blind."

Asma nods for Salima to head for the
door, but then Yasmin speaks

"Voice modesty is used as much as
feasible at the hospital. Just as our everyday burqas are not
appropriate it showed that Salima and I
made the right choice by wearing a large
ball gag with leather straps and a buckle. Do Wafa and you have such
gags or do you need to borrow these as
well?"

The Asma has to remove
her gag again to speak. "Thank
you but I have several which I have never used.
A branch of my family, who we only see
at weddings and such, observe voice
modesty almost all their waking hours
although they don't veil nearly as much as
you two and every time we meet and when
they see my small ball gag on an elastic
cord they give me what they call a proper gag. They all hurt like
hell to wear but for the trip to see Parveen
I'll suffer, and Wafa probably will as well."

Salima meanwhile has gagged and starts
walking towards the door with Asma trailing her while fitting her gag
and face cover again. This time they leave Yasmin's house.

The next day in the early afternoon
Yasmin goes to Asma's house for them to meet with Wafa and the three
of them together go for tea at Salima’s.
Last night Sayed wanted to go to bed with Yasmin early and here he
immediately started to be intimate so Yasmin never got to even think
about trying being trapped under a
sheet. But earlier, before Sayed got home, she had time to work on
her own idea so now when meeting Asma and Wafa her outfit is a little
different from normal. It's not her public appearance that is
different though so Asma and Wafa just see her as usual in her
off-white peep-hole burqa waiting for her both fully covered in blue
burqas. They just touch cheek to cheek and then start walking to
Salima’s.

Their hostess
receives them wearing a simple sky blue
salwar kameez with the usual bushiya placed on top and reaching down
to the elbows for better coverage when opening the door to the
street. Inside the house the three guests remove their burqas and
Salima her boushiya but then the undressing stops. The three guests
stare even though they could have removed their next layer for better
vision. Salima's head is covered in thick scarves matching her salwar
kameez in colour and she wears dark sunglasses for her head to look
like the nurses and doctors of the hospital. After she has let her
guests take in the sight for a little while she goes to the coffee
table and picks up a notepad she then holds up in front of them where
she has written

'Being under a tight sheet was an
interesting experience. Now I'm trying the thick tight head covering
of a nurse.'

From this written statement the three
others understand that Salima is unable to speak.

They reach up under the remaining
layers to remove their gags. Yasmin
notices that Asma and Wafa have both
been gagged with a ball on an elastic
strap like Salima and herself. Despite they normally would have
started speaking now they don't because of their hostess.

They just continue their undressing.
Asma and Wafa are also wearing a black
layer like Yasmin. Theirs consist of a long black dress and a
boushiya like Salima has just removed; and black gloves, but as they
stay on they can't be said to be part of this layer. Yasmin, in
addition to a long black dress, wears a black waist length
khimar with a smaller black boushiya piece of cloth attached and
elbow length black gloves going on top
of her kameez sleeves and an inner pair of gloves. Having removed
this she is ready to be in private with women and non-mahram men, but
as usual still not showing an inch of herself.

She can now,
along with Salima, establish that
Asma and Wafa haven't followed Salima's suggestion to come dressed as
usual to show hands, feet and face, but are fully covered like them.
A little less modest though by wearing a colourful salwar kameez as
usual and not a plain single-coloured one like Yasmin and Salima. The
heads of Asma and Wafa are as usual covered by a large matching scarf
with a long end drawn across the lower face and pinned at the
opposite side as they often do when
going out in public, but today this face
covering is not removed in private. As earlier observed their hands
are covered in black gloves and further they wear black opaque cotton
pantyhose or stockings. But for the first time as far as Yasmin knows
they wear eye covering. It looks like they have done this together
because their coverings are identical. It's a rather dense black mesh
so that all that can be through it is a
little movement of the eyes.

Last it is Yasmin's turn to be stared
at. The others can now see the implementation of the idea she got
from the hospital. The face part of her pak-chador does not stop just
below the eyes as is normal but reaches up to overlap the part of her
head scarf covering her forehead. To see it has circular cut-outs for
the eyes like the receptionists and secretaries at the hospital, but
Yasmin wears her usual eye cover beneath for her eyes to be a little
more obscured than those of Asma and Wafa.

After they all now have learned that
each of them has been influenced by the hospital visit to increase
the modesty of their appearance it's finally time to greet each
other. The hostess, Salima, starts by
tightly hugging first Asma or Wafa, not knowing the salwar kameez
sets of any of them she, and Yasmin as well, doesn't know who is who.
Then she hugs the other and lastly Yasmin.
Then Yasmin hugs Asma and Wafa, and then to end the ambiguity says

"As our hostess
is excused may I, who spends half my
waking hours here, in words welcome you Asma and Wafa to Salima's
home. The way Salima hugged you both tells me that she is just as
thrilled as I am that you Asma have
neglected Salima's suggestion of the two of you coming here dressed
as you ordinarily do but are fully covered to be just as modestly
dressed as Salima and I are."

Yasmin's words had
the person in the green salwar
kameez turning to face the
orange one to announce that it is Asma
wearing the orange even before she answers

"Yes the hospital, and not
least the extremely modest
dress-code they insist on has
been on my mind from the moment Wafa and I left it, so just after I
left Yasmin’s house yesterday, I
decided to show nothing of myself as the two
of you do for this gathering. When passing the invitation on to Wafa
I even told her that we would have to be fully covered.
Sorry Wafa."

Wafa says "Thank you for the
invitation Salima. I'll return the
favour in the near future for sure. I forgive you Asma. Arriving
as Asma and I used to dress to this pious home I would not
have done anyway. Gloves and keeping my face covered except for the
eyes is most likely how I would have appeared, but seeing how
modestly everyone was dressed at the hospital I immediately agreed
with Asma when she told we had to be fully covered. This experience
has made me decide to wear a burqa in
public from now on; and probably dress more modestly in private as
well. In fact early this morning I went to Salman's modest clothing
store, where they have second-hand clothing as well I think you know,
in the hope that I could find a burqa
just half as good as the exquisite burqa you lent
me at an affordable price. Thank you so much for lending
it to me. It's so much more pleasing to wear than the blue one
I arrived in that you almost feel sad when having to take it off. No
doubt if such burqas were handed out for free to all those against
veiling they would all become modest covered women in less than a
week. Alas the only burqa above average I saw was a totally worn-out
black one which looked as if it was what
I was looking for when it had been new. Its face part was far
less worn-out than the rest. It was almost for free so I bought it to
remind me of how a burqa should be, but then when Asma and I
discussed how to cover our eyes I suggested the mesh of this burqa to
better wear just a little part of it than just look at and feel it.
The mesh was just sufficiently large to be cut in half for eye
covering for both of us when placing the top edge of our scarves as
high as over the eyelids and ensuring they stay there with three pins
attaching the top edge of the scarf to the mesh."

Meanwhile the three guests have been
seated at the coffee table and Salima has started making tea and
placed dishes with sandwiches and cakes on the table. Asma asks
Yasmin if she has studied the hospital receptionists so closely as to
be able to copy their pak-chadors or perhaps even acquired one
somehow. She answers she has made her pak-chador just from seeing
them. It fact it was only realised because she found a remnant large
enough to cover the entire face of a pak-chador she had once made
herself, and so it had to be this pak-chador that she modified and
its matching salwar kameez she is wearing now. Salima has just poured
the tea and now sits down with her guests while gesturing them to
help themselves to the food. The guests
have noticed that Salima has only placed a mug with a straw at her
own seat and while she demonstrates there is a tube for drinking
under her thick tight face covering coming out down at the neck just
above the neck of the kameez. Wafa says

"This sandwich tastes wonderful. I
feel a little ashamed going to eat of all of this which smells and
looks so wonderful while you can only have tea."

Salima takes the notepad and after a
while the others can read 'I have chosen it to be like this
myself. I ate a sandwich just after having made them and then
immediately covered my face. I haven't decided if I'll
remove my face covering and have a piece of cake if there is any left
after you have gone home.
It's an interesting experience to be covered like a nurse. At the
same time I listen to your conversation I am a nurse in my mind with
three patients who I serve lunch. As long as this head covering fuels
my mind I'll keep it on even if I have to drop dinner and perhaps go
on to sleep in it. My dreams might very well take me to a new level
much more exciting than the images created now.'

Yasmin says "In your daydream
under the tight sheet you told me you dreamed it was hot and
suffocating as I remember. Now that you have copied a nurse’s
head covering for real I would expect your dream was not far from
reality?"

While Salima writes an answer Yasmin
tells Asma and Wafa that Salima
had tried being tightly confined under a
sheet two nights ago. Then they read 'My head is sweaty and it
keeps getting hotter, and although at the beginning it wasn't that
much more difficult to
breathe than when wearing public clothing with a thick burqa on a hot
and dusty day it slowly becomes harder, but I can probably manage for
several hours more.'

Yasmin then says "I have to stop
now even if I would have loved to have more of these wonderful
sandwiches, even better than the fine sandwiches I always get here,
but there has to be room for trying all the cakes as well. Asma and
Wafa, perhaps you can complement each other in telling us
about your visit to the hospital and
then Salima and I can nod when having experienced the same and I can
comment in between."

Asma and Wafa start systematically from
the time they together started dressing for the trip. Their journey
is about the same as that of Yasmin and Salima, but it was an
extraordinary experience to them both so they like it being repeated.
It's still the same woman in the bed next to Parveen, and Asma and
Wafa have just reached the point where a doctor and two nurses, this
day as well, come to see to the woman when Salima suddenly turns away
from the table to first take her hands to her nose and try to pull
her tight covering away from the face but when it can't be moved she
takes her now shaking hands to the back of her head to desperately
try to loosen the knot of the thick tight face covering scarf while
getting up from the chair on shaky legs
and staggering to the bedroom and
closing the door. They all look
worriedly at the door and after a few
seconds Wafa says

"We were just about to reach the
point in our account where at the hospital we
experienced something similar I think, but let's first be sure Salima
is okay and if she hopefully is she has to hear this as well."

Yasmin gets up, knocks the bedroom door
and calls loudly "Salima are you
okay? Is there anything we can do?"

From the bedroom Salima, her
voice sounding normal, replies "I'm okay. Just my
prediction of being able to breathe in my nurse head covering for
several hours more was wrong. I'll be back in a few minutes. Please
take some more cake and tea."

After a little while Yasmin sits down
again and pours herself a cup of tea. Asma and Wafa have just
refilled their mugs as well. Nothing is said while the three of them
look towards the
bedroom door more than each other. After five minutes Salima
comes out of the bedroom with her head
covered as a nurse like before but it's a new covering as this one is
white. Yasmin, while shaking her head,
says

"Crazy Salima, you had to
continue. I think you have from the beginning decided to try dressing
like a nurse until bedtime."

As she sits down
Salima nods her head. As Asma
fills Salima's mug Wafa says

"Salima, I was just about to tell
that we, like Yasmin and you, experienced a doctor coming to see to
the woman next to Parveen. The doctor's visit started like what you
experienced, I assume, with the curtains being drawn around the other
patient and then we heard the doctors muffled electronic sounding
voice but so low nothing could be perceived. Whispering Parveen took
up our conversation and we chatted for some minutes until suddenly
interrupted by the doctor's voice suddenly sounding loud but still
incomprehensible saying something like 'Urh, arh, oi, oi, hhrh'. Half
way through these sounds the doctor
burst through the curtains with her
hands holding at her face covering, just like you did Salima. She
staggered towards the door while a nurse came up at each side and
took hold of her just moments before she collapsed for the nurses to
drag a limp body out of the room. Parveen was just as shocked as Asma
and I not having seen this before either, but the woman, whose
doctor's visit was cut off, said that it had happened to her once
before. The doctor who came to finish
what the collapsed doctor was doing told her that the doctors here
were so dedicated that almost all of them now and then forgot to both
take a break and think about how hard it was to breathe."

Hearing this Salima starts writing for
the three others to just await her message. It says

'I have been a doctor more than a
nurse. I have been totally dedicated to making
the best possible welcome to Asma and Wafa, and although I have been
aware of that my breathing became harder and harder I have all the
time believed that I was able to take much more. Of course, contrary
to the doctors, I had no experience of where my limit was.'

Both Asma and Wafa get up and go to
embrace Salima saying as with one voice "I feel really
welcome. It radiates from you that you like me, and the fantastic
meal emphasises it."

Asma finishes their account where the
rest is again close to what Yasmin and Salima experienced. Then they,
or rather Yasmin, Asma and Wafa, discuss the welcome-back lunch for
Parveen which might be tomorrow.

At half past four Yasmin says she has
to get home to prepare dinner and Asma and Wafa say they have to
leave too. Wafa is worried about Salima being alone while she
insists on wearing the breath restricting head covering
and offers to spend the rest of the
afternoon with her leaving a note for Aziz. Salima assures that she
will from now on regularly think about if her breathing is coming
close to the point of suffocation and besides, although it came as a
surprise to her, she didn't collapse and being alone she can remove
the head covering right where she is in just a few seconds.

It is clear that Salima won't accept
Wafa's offer and they start saying goodbye greetings and hug each of
the others. Then Yasmin, Asma and Wafa cover
for public and gag themselves to finally brush cheek to cheek with
Salima.

Outside Yasmin's house she brushes
cheeks with Asma and Wafa who directly move on.

While preparing for bed Yasmin decides
that trying to be covered under a sheet is sufficiently breath
restricting not to be tried for some time to come or
instead of dreaming pleasant dreams about being very modest at
the hospital will have nightmares of suffocation. It will be a normal
night where Sayed and her enjoy being close. But after about ten
minutes together in bed their cuddling is interrupted by a female
voice crying out loud from the neighbouring house:

"Aarh, aarh, ah, ah, ah. Aaaah,"
Parveen cries.

"Parveen has obviously been
discharged from the hospital," Yasmin says in a worried voice to
Sayed, continuing "With her leg in a cast
she might have stumbled again the poor girl."

Sayed answers "As I hear it she
has just had the
sex experience of her life, and she obviously doesn't wear a
gag in bed as you do when we aim at repeating our honeymoon. They
have not been intimate for three days remember, and besides some men
are especially aroused by women in casts or bandages."

Yasmin gets out of bed while saying "I
guess you are right. If I hadn't heard her cry of pain the other day
I would immediately have thought as you."

She takes a large red ball gag with
leather straps from a drawer and with difficulty enters it in her
mouth, buckles the straps tight and returns to bed.